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Oliver
Leiber
producer/songwriter/musician
Producer
and songwriter Oliver Leiber's first big success came when he produced Paula
Abdul's first album, "Forever Your Girl." Selling between ten and
twelve million copies worldwide, Leiber's songwriting prowess, demonstrated
by writing the hit singles "Opposites Attract" "It's Just The
Way That You Love Me" and "Forever Your Girl"
factored highly into that album's mainstream popular appeal. Leiber's nascent
Pop music sensibilities next surfaced in his collaboration with little-known
Irish singing group, the Corrs. As with so many of Leiber's projects, their
multi-platinum "Talk On Corners" Atlantic Records album started
as a song writing collaboration that blossomed into Leiber co-writing five
songs and producing seven songs total including a cover of Fleetwood Mac's
"Dreams" that launched the Corrs to worldwide stardom with more
than seven million units sold.
Leiber's next move was unexpected as he eschewed the comforts of his Hollywood Hills, California manse and world-class recording studio to go on the road with veteran rocker Rod Stewart. Playing guitar in Stewart's band rekindle Leiber's love of harder Rock/Pop and eventually led to playing on Rod's Warner Brothers opus "When We Were The New Boys." While in England with Rod, Leiber was introduced to a Liverpool trio called BB Mak who later came to L.A. to work on songs for their first album on Hollywood Records. The album, "Sooner Or Later" propelled by the hit single "Back Here" went on to sell over a million copies. Projects along the way include Beth Hart and her critically acclaimed "L.A. Song" and the current hit, "Leave The Light On" as well as Jennifer Paige's single "These Days."
"With Silvertide
and now Antigone Rising, I'm making much harder sounding records than I've
been known for in the past. Believe it or not this has heightened my awareness
of the sounds of the individual components of the recording chain-all starting
with the mic," states Leiber. On advice from his engineer, Leiber purchase
two Soundelux ELUX 251 microphones just before starting Antigone Rising. Leiber
explains: "The very first day in the studio we did a vocal mic shootout
with Cassidy, lead
singer from Antigone. We put up an ELUX 251, a very good condition vintage
Telefunken ELAM 251, and a Neumann M 49 all using the same Neve 1081 input
module. The thing about the Soundelux was that is was just really natural
and open. The Tele 251 had this 'spikey' quality that worried me. I didn't
know if I'd cut a whole record with it. The Tele might have worked on some
songs where Cassidy wasn't belting out and not in her upper register but I
was really concerned on the rock songs where she is pushing and I knew the
sound would be piercing with the Tele. The Soundelux had all the warmth and
openness we wanted but it didn't have that spike and it wasn't dull either.
It has plenty of top end. When
recording, I am looking for transparency and naturalness. If I close my eyes
I have to feel like that instrument or that singer is in front of me in as
pure form as possible and I've discovered the ELUX 251 gives me just that,"
Leiber says. The ELUX 251 also was used for all of Chynna Phillips' vocals,
as well as with her background parts. "Once again, on these demos, it
was smooth sailing with this mic. Even stacking up loads of vocal backing
tracks, I never had a stridency problem. It always sounded 'right!'"
relates Leiber.
Hearing and knowing when
it's 'right or wrong' is the experiential side of record producing and Leiber
reckons he takes after his famous father, Jerry Leiber, one half the famous
songwriting/producing team Leiber/Stoller. Oliver goes on to say: "I
guess I'm a lot like my father in that respect since he is not at all technical
but just knows when the sound quality of the drums, horns or vocals - all
the separate parts that make up a record - sound wrong or right together.
My dad knew how those things were just one
part of the total 'vibe' that he worked hard to nurture during a session so
musicians and singers could achieve that 'magic take.'"
Leiber continues: "For acoustic guitar, we just set it up in cardioid ten to fourteen inches in front of the soundhole and it was unbelievably woody. You could hear the warmth and feel the flesh on the strings - WOW! Myself, my engineer and my Pro Tools operator all immediately agreed: Now that sounds like a record.
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copyright
2003 studioexpresso